Internet Party to hold candidate search events

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Kim Dotcom's political version of New Zealand's Got Talent hits Auckland next week with his Internet Party holding candidate search events on Wednesday and Thursday followed by the grand final on Saturday.

The party said more than 140 of its members would vie for positions as candidates during preliminary selection meetings from May 24-29, including those in Auckland.

Meetings where candidates would be "put through their paces" are also being held in Hamilton, Wellington Christchurch and Dunedin.

Internet Party chief executive Vikram Kumar said a shortlist would then be decided, with successful applicants from the preliminary meetings advancing to a final national selection event - a Candidate Challenge open to the public - in Auckland on June 7.

"Our promise has always been to select our candidates to contest the election, as list or electorate candidates, directly from our membership. We expect to send up to 20 candidates to the final selection meeting on June 7, with a view to establishing the order of a final list of 15-20 candidates based on feedback from our members using a smartphone app. It's internal democracy in action."

The decision on final selection and ranking will be made by the Internet Party's Executive Committee which includes Mr Dotcom, Mr Kumar and Party Secretary Anna Sutherland after taking into account members' evaluations.

Meanwhile Mana Party Leader Hone Harawira told reporters this afternoon the prospect of a tie up between his party and the Internet Party was "looking good".

He said the work towards an electoral alliance with the Internet Party was taking longer than hoped.

"We've yet to conclude a heads of agreement we're working on it with meetings tomorrow, possibly if we close that tomorrow we'll be out around the traps over the weekend and early into next week."

Any final proposal for a tie up needs to be taken around Mana's rohe or regional groups before the party's executive makes a final decision.

Mr Harawira said the issues holding up a heads of agreement or formal proposal were "not majors and they're not policy issues either, they are technical details we're working through them, it's looking good".

Mr Harawira again said the issue of who would lead the Internet Party was a critical one.

"That's something that we've asked them to get really clear on because I don't want to be going in with Don Brash or Michael Laws or Rodney Hide."